Friday Inspiration 483

we ask a running coach dumb questions, scale model of the timeline of the universe, bonkers food collabs

This is a year old, but WOW, building a scale model of the timeline of the history of the universe in the Mojave Desert—in a day. (video)

Anton Krupicka doesn’t write very often on his Substack, but the last piece he wrote about why his dad continues to shovel snow into his mid-70s, and about his longtime friend Joe Grant, and about singlespeed bikes, was a great read.

I had a nice chat last week with Tyler Dempsey for his Another Fucking Writing Podcast show, and after we’d finished talking about a bunch of things, including a couple of my favorite books that I think more people should read, he sent me this great essay he’d written a few months back, about darkness, time, and relationships.

I clicked on this Eater headline, “Every Food Collab Now Is Completely Bonkers,” because I often think the same thing when I’m in the grocery store. And I didn’t know this before I read it, but now I know that Taco John’s and 5-Hour Energy collaborated to create a caffeinated hot sauce, because why not, I guess. And this was my favorite line: "Mostly, they make me consider the very nature of reality. What is the purpose of a product? Is hot sauce a beverage? Is a smoothie lipstick?"

Sometimes I’m putting together this newsletter on Thursday, like I was yesterday, and I start thinking, “Wow, I have a lot of essays in this week’s newsletter, maybe I should poke around Reddit and find something way less committing, like … oh, here we go, a 22-second video of a restaurant worker SOMEHOW fitting this giant pile of food inside a tortilla without the tortilla ripping. Yeah. That’ll do.”

I love finding good writing, and I think I kind of suck at describing why it’s good—like this essay by Niko Stratis, whose work I’ve mentioned before in this newsletter. Her essays are always fascinating, weaving together music, culture, and scenes from growing up in the Yukon and becoming a journeyman glazier, and discovering her gender identity. Anyway, her new book, The Dad Rock That Made Me A Woman, came out on Tuesday, and this week's essay is one of my favorites I’ve read of hers, maybe partly because I also put songs on repeat for an hour sometimes.

We interviewed my friend Mario Fraioli for the latest episode of The Trailhead podcast, and he was a super-good sport when I pitched him the idea for the episode, which I believe was “We Ask A Running Coach Dumb Questions.” Some of them were dumb, and some sounded less dumb than I originally thought they were, but he humored us. And he said yes, I should wear a hat when I run.
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